The following discussion of the background to the invention is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to was published, known or is part of the common general knowledge of the person skilled in the art in any jurisdiction as of the priority date of the invention.
Public switched telephone networks (PSTN) numbers are typically assigned to the physical line and that number remains unchanged. Similarly, mobile phone numbers are assigned to the subscriber identity module (SIM).
One known way of assigning PSTN numbers and mobile phone numbers is based on the E.164 ITU-T recommendation which defines the format of telephone numbers and the international public telecommunication numbering plan used in PSTN and other data networks.
There is, however, a perceived need for a service that could provide dynamic and temporary allocation of phone numbers which will allow the creation of different identifiers for the source caller to different recipients.
Although users of mobile phones may utilize caller ID and call lists, these features are merely informational and require the user to actively update and associate callers to a contact, such as by saving each caller's number in a contact list or electronic phonebook. Under the caller ID system, there is no active links or automatic association between the caller and the person being called.
A known method of associating between a caller and the person being called is to create a ‘social connection’ or social link. However such systems are limited and restricted to callers and persons receiving the calls within the same network due to trust/security issues.
Further, while it is possible to switch off the caller ID option or mask a phone number, many current phones and phone systems do not support number masking due to possible abuse by end users.
The present invention seeks to alleviate or reduce the above mentioned drawbacks.